England and ??? for 10 days

[spring_wedding]

Hey all! I'm *finally* starting to look at the fun part of wedding planning...the honeymoon! We know a few things for sure, and the rest is up in the air yet. We know we'll have 10 days, and we know we at least want to hit England....London more specifically. The second area is still up in the air yet. Do we do England and Ireland, or England and Paris. Any suggestions one way or another? Anyone been to any of these places that can offer some insights? Please let me know!

[ejs]

With only 10 days, you might want to just see England. There are so many great areas: The Lakes District, the Cotswalds, Bath, Dover...

DH and I did England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales for three weeks and that wasn't even close to enough time.

[Rosebud]

You could definitely spend 10 days just in England. However, if you'd prefer to go someplace else, I'd absolutely recommend London and Paris. It's easy to get between the cities via the Chunnel or a quick Ryan Air or EasyJet flight.

I'd recommend Paris over Ireland only because you definitely need more time to do Ireland justice, but you could comfortably split the amount of time you have between London and Paris. 4 or 5 days in each city will allow you to see most of the major sights.

[LoveandLaw]

If you are mostly interested in doing London, I'd do 5 days there and 5 days in Paris. Last time I went, I spent 7 days in both and it still wasn't enough time, IMO. You can spend a month in London and still find plenty to do. Same with Paris. Paris is such a beautiful and romantic city. I think it would be perfect for a honeymoon. And there are a lot of day trips that you can take from London - Bath, Stonehenge, etc.

You can also get really cheap airfare between the two cities on Ryan Air or Easy Jet, and sometimes BMI Baby (European based airlines). Or you can take the Chunnel. I found that airfare is usually cheaper than the Chunnel on the airlines I mentioned. Just an FYI, there is a weight restriction for luggage on these airlines that is less than the international restriction, but still doable.

[tlew12778]

I agree with the others - either do all 10 days in England, or do London and Paris if this is your first time visiting Europe.

[boilermaker]

I agree with everyone to do London and Paris. Though to be fair, our first trip to Europe was 12 days and we did London, Paris and Scotland and it was great as well. We just knew in advance that our time in London and Paris would be short and more an intro to each city than an in depth visit. it just depends on your attitude and what you want to see.

As for travel between the cities, the Chunnel is more expensive at first glance. However, the value airlines terminals are not in the cities themselves. The Ryan Air "Paris" airport is actually 1.5 hours on a bus from Paris proper. So I would recommend the Chunnel as it leaves from right in downtown London and takes you right to the main train station of Paris. Very very easy to use and very convenient.

[spring_wedding]

Well sounds like my gut instincts were right. I was leaning more towards London and Paris myself, only because i know if we were to do Ireland I'd want more than just a day or two to see it. LOL

Any absolute "must hits" that most tourists might overlook? I'll be doing all the big attractions of course, but its always fun to hit that out of the way stuff that most people might not know about.

[Rosebud]

Any absolute "must hits" that most tourists might overlook? I'll be doing all the big attractions of course, but its always fun to hit that out of the way stuff that most people might not know about.

There's a good thread on this board about France: Travel in France (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=20091)

There are some sightseeing suggestions there. Also, on p. 2 of that thread there's a link to a bunch of "Non-Touristy Stuff to do in Paris."

Also linked in that thread is my trip review from my honeymoon last year. We spent some time in Paris and I posted sightseeing recommendations (and a few restaurants, too).

I defintiely recommend checking out the Fodors.com boards, which are very helpful for Europe. Also, here's a bunch of trip reviews from brides who have honeymooned in London and Paris: The Honeymoon Bio Trip Reviews Page (http://www.angelfire.com/oz/honeymoonbio/)

[jnettie]

I highly reccommend Rick Steves's guide books. They are excelent for everything from finding a place to stay to going to the places not everyone knows about. We got "Europe through the Backdoor" and found some great places that way.

It really does depend on your tastes and what you find fun. We wished we had more time to explore the Noting Hill neighborhood in London, because it seemed very young and funky. There were a bunch of night spots that weren't open when we were there.

[Asha]

if you plan on doing extensive traveling in the future, i would just do england. if this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime type vacation, i would do london and paris.

[Lanapoo]

If you go to Paris be sure to take a night time boat ride along the Seine river. The lights of Paris are beautiful and the bridges look cool in the dark too.

I thought the view was much better from the Arch of Triumph (l'Arc de Triomphe) than from the Eiffel Tower. Plus you can get a great picture there of the two of you with the Tower in the background.

In London I thought the tower of london was great. All that lovely history and you get to walk where queens were beheaded (good ol' Henry VIII ;) ). But one of the most enjoyable things for me to do in England was to take a mini-bus tour from Bath of the Cotswolds, Stonehenge, etc. It was an awsome day!

ITA with the Rick Steves recommendation, his books are a fun read, have good maps, and everything he recommended was really good.

[pyjammy]

We went to London for our honeymoon as well, and thanks to a friend who let us stay with her, we were able to go for two full weeks. In the middle, we went to the countryside of Wales for a couple of nights. It was incredibly beautiful. I would have liked to go to the Cotwolds as well (or instead) but I have no regrets about where we went. Sigh....so beautiful!

[spring_wedding]

London has been an area I've been dying to visit ever since I can remember. Now we're back to debating the second place again! I would LOVE to do paris, even if its only for a few days, but DH would really prefer to do Ireland (I think it's only b/c his favorite beer is made there, but that's neither here nor there...LOL). It may end up that we're a bit rushed if we do two places like most of you are saying, but we're aware of that. Even though we may end up going to Europe again, this will be the only chance we have to do it without the kids, so I wanna see as much as I can w/o worrying about watching little ones under my feet. LOL.

[boilermaker]

When we took our trip over there, we knew it wouldn't be our last trip forever but we definitely can't go often. So even though we were only there for 12 days, we picked 3 locations. We were only in Paris for 2 days. Not enought time to get to really see the city, but I am still so glad we did it.

So really, you could do London for 4-5 days, Paris for 2 days and then hit one area in Ireland for 3 days. The transportation between areas is cheap enought and quick enough that I wouldn't worry about it. It would be enough time to give you a flavor of each area and you would still have a blast.

[HeatherFL]

I'm going to go against the majority. I much prefer Ireland to Paris and would say to go there instead. But Paris is nice too and you'll be on your honeymoon so I'm sure you'll enjoy it wherever you choose. :)

~H.

[LIZNKEITH]

I'm with Heather...I definitely preferred Ireland over Paris. In fact, DH and I agree that of the trips we’ve been on, Ireland has been our favorite.